School Children in Salad Days Challenge

This week youngsters at a Boston primary school are rising to the Dragon’s Den-style challenge set by chilled food producer Freshtime.

Yesterday (Monday) 60 year 3 pupils at St Thomas’ Primary School took part in a taste test during the first session of a week-long Dragon’s Den-style task, marking the end of the Freshtime Fun Club 2015.

Mel Miles, Freshtime Head of Agronomy, introduced the seven and eight-year-old pupils to a variety of healthy, ready-to-eat pasta and vegetable salad dishes.

“It was great to see the children so excited to try the salads,” said Alison Smith, Year 3 Teacher at St Thomas’ Primary School. “There was an assortment of ingredients and they seemed to enjoy the different tastes and textures.”

The pupils tasted 10 salad dishes produced by Freshtime and rated them based on how healthy they are, how much they enjoyed the taste and smell, how appealing they looked and how filling they were.

The pupils were then challenged, via video link by Freshtime MD Mark Newton, to work in groups to come up with their own salad product, aimed at encouraging children to eat healthily.

On Friday, the 10 groups will put their ideas to Freshtime’s MD Mark Newton and his Dragon’s Den panel, who will judge the winning ideas.

Alison added: “The challenge to create a new product, its packaging and a sales pitch by Friday has already captured the children’s imagination and I’m excited to see how the initial ideas develop over the week.”

Each of the groups has an opportunity to win house points for their efforts, but one lucky team will win a healthy cook book.

“I’m looking forward to seeing what the pupils create and to hearing their sales pitch on Friday,” said Mark Newton, Managing Director of Freshtime. “Who knows? This could be the first step for a future Freshtime product developer.”

The club, delivered by staff from the leading fresh chilled food producer based on the Riverside Industrial Estate in Boston, aims to raise awareness of healthy eating and where food comes from.

Earlier in the summer term pupils from Reception and Year 2 took part in planting sessions with Mel Miles.